Too many to-do lists and obligations, not enough eggnog—Christmas is coming. If you’d like to remedy that imbalance, throw some well-earned money at the problem and consider outsourcing the holidays to the experts, from wrapping gifts to trimming trees, from cooking turkeys to addressing cards. You deserve it.
Designing and Addressing Holiday Cards
Bernard Maisner trained as a fine artist at Cooper Union in Manhattan before turning to custom social stationery 20 years ago. He offers an off-the-peg line at Bergdorf Goodman alongside one-off designs. Any such bespoke clients can also hire him to address their envelopes, with various script styles that range from classic to flourished.
Of the Loeffler family, for whom he has created custom holiday cards for many years, Maisner says,“We always meet in person at their home in New York and sit down for a creative discussion, often over a glass of Champagne.” The most recent design was a complex, hand-assembled card engraved in two colors with an interactive, spinning arrow; Maisner hand-addressed each of the 300 envelopes accompanying the card, using the Loefflers’ favorite purple ink.
Card design and production, from $2,000 for 100 cards and envelopes. The spinner card, as described ,cost $12,000 for 300 cards and envelopes. Envelope-addressing, from $3 per line.
Decorating Your Tree
Every Christmas tree selected and decorated by interior stylist Erin Swift and her Holiday Workroom team is one-of-a-kind—even when a client orders many for the same home. That’s what happened last year, when they installed eight individually themed trees in a mansion in upstate New York, all in one day. It was even tougher to transport a 10-foot fir through the streets of Soho and via a tiny elevator to the loft of an art-loving client who wanted a tree that played off a favorite artwork: a giant day-glo piece by Robert Swain, who’s known for trippy, Pantone-like contact sheets. Swift festooned the custom tree with 2,000 lights and 500 ornaments, each painstakingly color-matched to the blues and pinks in Swain’s artwork.
Neatness freaks need not fret, as Erin Swift will tackle both artificial and real trees. For the latter, Swift recommends the premium Balsam Hill to minimize needle-dropping.
From $1000 per tree.
Gift Wrapping
Remember Candy Spelling’s notorious gift-wrapping room? If you have neither space nor inclination to install one of your own, hire Mia Canada. The Atlanta-based entrepreneur of That’s a Wrap! has spent the past eight years wrapping gifts year-round. An event planner by training, a local mall’s urgent last-minute request for gift-wrapping service changed Canada’s career. After a few hours poring over YouTube videos and some competitive shopping to see the standard set by Macy’s and others, she landed Candy Spelling’s dream job. Her team of a dozen works with corporate and private clients across the country; the gifts onscreen in Mark Wahlberg’s new movie, Instant Family are Canada’s handiwork.
“I have one client who insists on waiting until the last minute to have them wrapped, because he doesn’t want the family to find them. And it’s well over 100 gifts because it’s a huge family,” she says. “So, each year, we’re traditionally wrapping them well into Christmas morning. We have to dress as elves in case the children find us placing them under the tree.”
Prices vary, from $10 for a one-off gift to $125 per hour for larger projects.